


Long Shots and Desperate Measures

by orphan_account



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Laura Hale is alive, Laura is the alpha, M/M, au where werewolves are known and on the run, cuz hunters are big nasties who work for the government, some creepy implications of nasty things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:45:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first day at a new job is always hard. It's even harder when your boyfriend is in a cage in the back and all you're trying to do is save his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Shots and Desperate Measures

“So…yeah. You just run the systems check twice and then you can shut it down for the night, the wolfsbane will do the rest of it, for the most part,” the attendant ran a hand through her hair, pushing the short curls out of her face, “This is all probably redundant for you. But I have to go through it, ya know?”

Stiles shrugged, “I get it. Procedure or whatever. So what’s next?”

“That’s pretty much everything, unless you want to meet the current tenants. I know you’ve worked in one of these before, but I totally get it if you don’t want to do that right now. Most of the new kids don’t,” she glanced down the darkened hallway, “it’s getting late and they’ll all be antsy. So if you want to wait until the morning that’s cool.”

Stiles followed her gaze down the hallway, quiet noises echoed out of the darkness and the place smelled simultaneously of forgotten things and dead trees. He doesn’t really want to go down there. But what comes out of his mouth is, “I can handle it. May as well get it over with. They’re not gonna be any better in the morning.”

He throws her a smile that isn’t real, and she smiles back. Hers might be.

She starts down the hall, the lights flicker on in recognition of her presence, and Stiles follows close behind her. Many of the kennels are empty which is not abnormal in a small town like Beacon Hills. Especially considering they’re the home town of what’s practically a battalion of hunters.

She starts talking as they pass a few more empty kennels, "I know you're aware of the dropping population around here, but right now we're pretty low even for us. We're holding a kind of special one at the moment so a lot of our normal tenants were transferred to another facility for the time being."

"What do you mean a 'special one'?" Stiles asks. They pass their first wolf. The moon is two weeks away but she’s pacing the kennel fully transformed. She turns her eyes to them, and they flash yellow in the fluorescent light. A beta. Most of them are betas.

The girl who’s giving him the tour grins at him, looking a bit excited, "Last of the Hale pack."

Stiles stares at her, "But they all burned. It was all over the news. Six years ago or something, whole family. Even the...even the humans. They called it the extinction of the genetic wolves, which is really a bit melodramatic, because there are lots of other known genetic packs across the country. But all the Hales died, didn't they?"

Stiles had followed the story closely. The heroic Argents slaughtering the wicked animals of the Hale pack, and those humans who weren't smart enough to run. It had happened just a few months after his mother died. Stiles had been distracting himself with a lot of violent news stories.

"Nope. Two left. And we've got one. It's bait," her grin turns conspiratorial, "And my god, is it gonna make you wish that you could afford one of them. Cuz it is gorgeous."

Stiles smiles back, his stomach twisting, "I bet."

More of the kennels that they pass are occupied as they near the end of the hall. It’s easy to tell the difference between wolves that have been pets before and the ones that are freshly caught. The ones that dare to growl, snap, or even take flying leaps at the poison metal have never lost their freedom before. The ones that try to disappear as they pass know what’s coming for them. Stiles shivers.

The girl stops in front of a solid door, and pulls out a key, "Maximum security. Generally for alphas, which this one isn't. But like I said, he's special."

She opens the door and leads Stiles don another hallway that distinctly lacks an organic smell. This hall smells of chemicals and fluorescent lighting. The lights here are bright, and not motion activated. They seem to be a constant. They're so bright in comparison to the hallway that they leave Stiles blinking and disoriented for a few seconds.

Once his eyes adjust, he sees that there are no open cells like in the main hall, where the wolfsbane enhanced metal is all that holds the wolves back. Here there are solid doors, the pressurized hiss of a gas releasing echoes even through the heavy doors.

"You guys didn't have an alpha facility, right?" the girl asks.

"Uh…no. We were a beta/omega facility. Generally we didn't even have a lot of betas. We were kind of where they sent them to die."

"Ah. That's what I figured. That sound? The hissing? That's only in the alpha facilities. It’s a wolfsbane mist. That and the lights help keep them from actually transforming. And in the cells there's a white noise loop. The important thing with alphas is keeping them distracted, and, quite honestly, the easiest way to do that is with sensory overload and pain," she gestures toward the last cell in the row of three, "It's in there."

Stiles hopes she doesn't notice the steadying breath he takes as he walks over, but even if she does, she'll probably think it's just nerves. The door he stands before has a porthole window just a bit bigger than his head a little bit below what is convenient eye level, and he has to duck to look though the thick glass.

He bites his tongue.

It's certainly Derek Hale.

He looks very small where he's curled at the back of the room, like a child with his face hidden in his arms. The hissing of the wolfsbane spray isn't as prevalent in his room. Stiles imagines that if it was, Derek wouldn't actually be conscious right now. And he seems to be. Stiles hopes he is. Hesitantly, very conscious of the girl watching him, he taps on the thick glass, wondering if Derek will even be able to hear him. It takes a century long second, one where Stiles doesn't dare look at the girl, for Derek to look up.

Stiles carefully schools his face into a blank expression when all he wants to do is smile and tell Derek everything will be alright. Even if it won't.

"He's a nice one, right?"

Stiles keeps his eyes on Derek, "Yeah. Very.”

He tears his eyes away, “They really think the other one will come and get him?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. They’ve got an informant or something and apparently it's him and his older sister. She's the alpha. She's not going to abandon all that's left of her pack, they just don't do that." She opens the door that leads back onto the main hall, "Come on, we got to put you on the official schedule."

"Yeah, alright." Stiles glances through the window once more, Derek is still looking at him, his expression edging on desperation.

It is physically painful for Stiles to force himself to turn away.

He doesn't look at any of the betas on the way out. Not like he studied them all that closely on the way in, but somehow he's much more afraid of recognizing one the second time through. Or worse, that one will recognize him and give up the game. And Stiles is not a good liar, and thus a quite terrible actor. If one of the betas says something to him, it's done. And they're all dead.

But despite his tension, none of them say anything. The same ones that made moves to attack them before do so again, and he ones which did nothing cower further back in their cages. Stiles hates how much Derek looked like the wolves that have already experienced the joy of being a pet.

He swallows down sickness and promises himself just like he promised Laura that he will not allow that to happen. Ever. Not to Derek. Not to any of them.

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot promise that this will be updated anytime soon. There is some more written, but it needs to be typed up, and I have another fic I'm more concerned about getting updated right now. 
> 
> But this will continue eventually, hopefully.


End file.
